Minnesota Wild: Brett Bulmer eager to prove he's NHL-worthy

Brett Bulmer played nine games as a 19-year-old for Minnesota at the start of the 2011-12 season. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Although Brett Bulmer was among those who took a blow to the gut when the NHL locked out its players last fall, he was relatively unknown.

So hardly anyone noticed.

He is trying to make up for that now.

Bulmer missed making the Wild roster by a hair. He had played nine games as a 19-year-old for Minnesota at the start of the 2011-12 season, one fewer than the NHL cutoff that would have kept him with the Wild all season.

Then he was dispatched back to his junior team in Kelowna, British Columbia, where he produced 34 goals and 28 assists in 53 games to earn the team's designation as its most valuable player.

Bulmer played some postseason games with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League and felt he had a legitimate shot at making the Wild a year later.

Then "that whole lockout thing" occurred, he said. "There was no training camp to come into."

His frustration over playing for the Aeros mounted when he suffered a knee injury. Bulmer played just 43 games last season, recording four goals and three assists and drawing zero interest in a promotion from the Wild.

"His game was OK," Wild director of player development Brad Bombardir said. "And he knows that he was just OK, too."

Now Bulmer, a 6-foot-3 winger who is up 20 pounds to 215 from his weight two years ago, again finds himself watching and waiting.

A lingering injury, undisclosed, has kept him off the ice during the Wild's prospect camp this week at the Xcel Energy Center.

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But he's rehabbing, attending meetings, supporting teammates and logging time at the X to demonstrate his enthusiasm toward the coming season.

He is pointing toward training camp in September.

Because of his injury, he's not quite there physically.

Mentally?

"I feel ready," he said Friday at the X.

According to Wild assistant general manager Brent Flahr, Bulmer carried his weight during his time with the Wild two seasons ago, temporary though it was.

"He earned his way here," Flahr said. "He was a young guy who came in and had some very good games in the preseason. He had some good games even opening the regular season. We had that nine-game mark where we had to make a decision, and we thought it was best for the guy to play a lot. He had a terrific season in Kelowna that year."

Struggles with the Aeros notwithstanding, Flahr added, "He's still a guy we have high expectations for."

Bulmer has skills the Wild need, according to Bombardir. He has the size and talent to position himself in front of the opposition net and cause the other teams problems.

"He's got that edge. And he's still got that playmaking ability below the dots," Bombardir said. "It's that edge and that size."

Bombardir said Bulmer has the ability to make Minnesota's roster, even though he likely will come to camp behind nine players who appear to have spots locked up on the top three lines: Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Justin Pominville, Dany Heatley, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Matt Cooke, Nino Niederreiter and Kyle Brodziak.

Bullmer can't control that, he said, just as he couldn't control events that delayed the start of the 2012-13 NHL season.